Koronadal expects new gender-responsive projects in 2023
The city government of Koronadal as a staunch advocate of gender equality and women’s empowerment, especially in the workplace, looks forward to its departments coming forward with more gender-responsive project proposals for the 2023 budget year, towards the scaleup of gender mainstreaming.
The City Population Office (CPO) is providing various capacity-building and other inputs to local government offices and departments in order for them to come-up with a more gender-focused project proposals. Recently, members of the Technical Working Group (TWG) met in a meeting and orientation to work on the GAD’s plan and budget.
The activity hopes to come-up with a concrete GAD budget, which is the cost of implementing the GAD plan and is not in addition to the approved budget for posts and offices. The Magna Carta for Women provides that the cost of implementing GAD programs shall be the agency’s GAD budget, which shall be at least 5% of the agency’s total budget appropriations. On March 15, local government departments are expected to submit their respective GAD plans, along with project proposals, in preparation for the year 2023.
On the other hand, the CPO hopes to further enhance the implementation of the GAD Code to ensure that government programs and projects are equally accessible to all. The said code is a tangible proof that the city government prioritized gender equality as a fundamental value that should be reflected in development decisions, and it contends that women are active agents of development rather than passive recipients of development.
Meanwhile, the CPO hopes to establish and strengthen the GAD Focal Point System (GFPS) to accelerate gender mainstreaming within the community. To make the plan a reality, the Local Chief Executive will sign appropriate insurances to institutionalize the GFPS’s establishment, reconstitution and strengthening.
On the other hand, one of the CPO’s primary goals is to establish and maintain the GAD Database using reliable sex-disaggregated data and GAD-related information derived or sourced from monitoring system results, as well as studies, surveys, and administrative reports. This will serve as the foundation for gender-responsive planning, programming, and policy development within the GFPS.
Also, the orientation aims to improve participants’ understanding of how to incorporate gender into local development plans. According to City Population Officer Janet Demonteverde, all LGUs must incorporate GAD concerns into their local development plans in order to ensure sustainable and performance-based planning and budgeting. Furthermore, the procedure should be consistent with the local planning process and timeframe outlined in the DILG-NEDA-DMB-DOF JMC No. 1 Series of 2007. Gender inclusion in local plans should take into account the planning structure, multi-sectoral development and land-use plans, the planning process, the LDIP/AIP, and the budget.
With the March 15 deadline approaching, the CPO hopes to compile an output that is truly gender-based and supported by sex-disaggregated data that will greatly benefit the city’s constituents. This will be reviewed and approved by the Provincial Population Office.